sparevsspürtWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“spare” and “spürt” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,136
“spare” frequency rank
#8,949
“spürt” frequency rank
26085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature spare spürt
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs sparen 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs spüren

Where the eye mixes spare and spürt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
spare
5 ch
spürt

Visual trap between spare and spürt

A purely visual mix-up. spare ([ˈʃpaːʁə]) and spürt ([ʃpyːɐ̯t]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

spare is recorded at frequency rank #17,136, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈʃpaːʁə]. spürt is at rank #8,949, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃpyːɐ̯t].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 26085, this pair ranks #1,823,393 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of spare vs spürt

Shared letters: prs. Private to "spare": ae. Private to "spürt": .

"spare" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "spürt" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sparepsare · sapre · spaer · sparre · sppare · sprae · sspare

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "spare" for "spürt" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈʃpaːʁə] versus [ʃpyːɐ̯t]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "spare" vs "spürt" - which ranks higher?
"spürt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,949 in our German list, against #17,136 for "spare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "spare" and "spürt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "spare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "spürt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,823,393 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "spare" and "spürt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sire vs spare". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,823,393 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list